Hüsnü's has been there for 34 years and has had a massive effect on broadening the culinary horizons of our fair city. It's a meeting place for faculty, a place for students to try new things, a family-friendly outpost of civility on State Street, and an essential, exotic ingredient in many of our lives. It will be very sad if these restaurants have to go.

The clan of Hüsnü Atis is deeply interwoven into the fabric of the Madison community. The name probably sounds familiar to any Madison resident on the strength of Hüsnü's restaurant: this State Street institution opened in 1979 and has served Turkish, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean food to a receptive Madison since. (My father also knows the family through the Classics department at the UW-Madison and I attended West High School with Hüsnü's daughter Esenbahar.)

I read about that proposal and didn't even realize what businesses were being uprooted. That really does suck. Even if these places find a new home, it's never the same. I feel that way about Dotty's. The new place is fine, but it's nothing like the old location where they would yell out your name and you would end up sitting at a table with a bunch of strangers.

Unfortunately, they don't own the property. There is always that slight risk when you rent, that someday you'll be kicked out.

As a side note, is it a sign the economy is doing better because the amount of major construction and new project development going on is crazy. It seems like a new proposal is coming out each week.

I think where Buraka is now locationed used to be the Pad during the early 60s. It was the first Madison coffee house during the Beatnik Era and Bob Dylan played there before he entered the national scene.

In spring 1960, Madison author and historian Ronald Radosh was friendly with an aspiring folk singer who frequently played at a State Street coffeehouse called The Pad. One day, Radosh and the singer sat together on the Union Terrace, playing guitar.

I think it was the Pad, or else the Pad was located somewhere in the back of the same building. You might have to ask Ben Sidran.

I'll miss Husnu's too. They were always just as nice to shabby-looking young students who ordered the cheap stuff as they were to better dressed people ordering the fancy stuff. Same with Himal Chuli. I appreciated it, in both places.

Regarding the Webster Street proposals: There's a good lesson in this one, I think. Pahl's Tire has been there since forever (if you look at it, the main part appears to have started out as a little brick house), and they've worn that building out. And that's the way I wish we could operate more often -- build a solid building, wear it out, and only then replace it. It's time to take Pahl's down and replace it with something new and better, something that might last another hundred years or much longer, and wear that one out.

I'm very glad we didn't replace Pahl's during the Concourse Hotel period when buildings were so butt-ugly, or during the fake-1890s period that followed. Right now we're putting up some contemporary architecture that, to my eye, should have lasting appeal. It's hard to tell before twenty or thirty years elapse, but that's my call and I hope the Alexander Company picks a nice, crisp design and uses quality finishes with appeal that will last..

Stebben84 wrote:Unfortunately, they don't own the property. There is always that slight risk when you rent, that someday you'll be kicked out.

This is the bottom line. Some restaurant owners want to own their building but can't afford it, or the property owners aren't selling, but others choose to continue to rent because it gives them more flexibility and costs less short-term. But the danger is it's not guaranteed forever!

There is a TON of available commercial space on State Street and downtown. I'd love to see these popular restaurants take root elsewhere.

And after the redevelopment, Buraka, Hüsnü's, Kabul, and Roast will likely have new and better rental space to lease for their restaurants. This new development will attract a high class of patrons who will have more disposable income to spend, leading to higher profit margins for the restaurants who will probably upgrade their services and products in order to meet the higher standards of their customers.

That will attract more high-quality employees for Epic which will ultimately mean better health care and better restaurants for the whole community.

Stebben84 wrote:Even if these places find a new home, it's never the same. I feel that way about Dotty's. The new place is fine, but it's nothing like the old location where they would yell out your name and you would end up sitting at a table with a bunch of strangers.

Right... except, if by old location you mean Fairchild, that wasn't their orignal location. Sometimes a move isn't a bad thing.

Duca's right. In the way-back, Dotty's was on Monroe Street near the stadium in a little metal Trachte building, wasn't it? It was full of Jeff Stanley's kitsch-and-clutter collection and was fun to go in.

Burnie's Rock Shop started out there too -- seems like that was in another little building that got taken down when the bank expanded.

Both moves were for the better, though it's not because anybody attracted "a higher class of patrons" for crying out loud.

Community meeting on this tonight:--A community meeting to discuss the proposed new development of the University Inn and adjacent sites will take place April 29 at 7 p.m. at the Pyle Center, Room 325, 702 Langdon St. The project will first be presented to the city's Urban Design Commission on May 8.--http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/artic ... icle=39778